This invention relates to gas lasers and more particularly to an electric discharge gas dynamic laser.
Heretofore previously reported gas lasers in which the excitation energy is supplied by an electrical discharge of some type have used either premixed gases or gases mixed under sonic or subsonic conditions. Previous systems of this type include those in which the lasing molecule receives its excitation energy directly from the electrical discharge and those in which some intermediate molecule, which has been excited by the discharge, and transfers its energy to the lasing species. In the latter case, previously existing systems have been operated with gases already mixed in the discharge region, or with the lasing species mixed with the previously electrically excited intermediate gas under subsonic or sonic conditions. In those devices in which all gases existed simultaneously in the discharge, the presence of the lasing species may be deleterious to the efficient deposition of energy into the intermediate gas, or limit it in some way. Conversely, the system may suffer from the effects of the discharge on the lasing species present, as through dissociation. Sonic or subsonic mixing of the laser species into the excited intermediate gas may not occur on a time scale fast enough to achieve the population inversion in a system with a short vibrational lifetime. Also, the rotational temperature of the gases may remain too high for optimal lasing conditions.
Previously, creation of CO.sub.2 laser radiation has been accomplished through direct electrical excitation, after transfer from electrically or thermally excited N.sub.2, or after transfer from chemically formed DF.